Mentalrobics™

You exercise your body to stay physically in shape, so why shouldn't you exercise your brain to stay mentally fit? With these daily exercises you will learn how to flex your mind, improve your creativity and boost your memory. As with any exercise, repetition is necessary for you to see improvement, so pick your favorite exercises from our daily suggestions and repeat them as desired. Try to do some mentalrobics every single day!

People have a natural tendency to pick the first solution that comes to their mind and go with it, without thinking about any of the alternatives. This is dangerous because better ideas can be overlooked simply because you have not properly defined the problem and thought about the solutions. A much better approach would be to select the best solution from a large collection of ideas.

Too often a problem is poorly solved because it is poorly defined in the first place. Care should be taken not to constrain the problem too narrowly because your chances for creativity will be limited. A broader problem statement will often give you more room for unique solutions, but don't go too broad otherwise you risk getting lost or distracted. Our exercise for working on the right level will help you properly constrain your problem.

Once you have a statement that you think properly defines your problem, try out these two exercises to help you clarify it further.